Patrick Gwynne

For his private houses, Gwynne developed a close-knit set of clients that included his builder, Leslie Bilsby, for whom he designed three houses, and his quantity surveyor, Kenneth Monk. These houses mark the height of 1960s life style, many designed as a series of connecting rooms that could be thrown together for parties, and with built-in dressers and drinks cabinets. Televisions and gramophones were cleverly concealed, and in one house were hinged within the wall to serve different rooms.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Gwynne designed a number of houses in Hampstead and Blackheath in London, and in Surrey, Oxfordshire and Dorset, many of which have been Grade II listed.

Gwynne's "Homewood" and garden, completed in 1938

Building The Homewood when he was just 24, Gwynne acknowledged his sources as Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Tugendhat House. Despite his enthusiasm for flat surfaces, man-made materials and rigorous lack of ornament, Gwynne produced a remarkably mature design at a young age,[3] designing all the built-in furniture, light fittings and innovations such as ensuites and window mechanisms.

The main accommodation is raised on pilotis to accommodate parking for the family's many cars. There is one large living room with a dining area screened at one end. The five bedrooms are in a separate wing and the servants' quarters had room for four servants.

His parents had "one good year" in the house, but died early in the Second World War, while Gwynne was serving in the Royal Air Force constructing airfields. War broke out just after the family home was finished. Commander Gwynne resumed his naval duties, Patrick joined the RAF and his sister, Babs, went to the Wrens. Patrick's mother Ruby let the house, but died along with her husband in 1942. After the war, Patrick returned along with his sister, who soon married and left. His long-term companion, pianist Harry Rand, had an adjoining bedroom, identical to Gwynne's, with a single bed and washbasin concealed behind sliding panels. He carried on a highly successful architectural business from the house that he was to live in for about 60 years.

In 1946 he restored the house for himself, remodelling the kitchen to the servantless times (though he continued to be looked after by housekeeper friends). His parents' bedroom was added to his office space. Murals by Peter Thompson and Stephan Knapp, and furniture to Gwynne's own design, were added over the years. He continually modified the house over time so that it represents design from the 1930s and 1950s to the 1970s.

The building was his personal masterwork, his home, his office and living portfolio. It's the only other substantial prewar modernist house with continuity of occupation and contents.[4]

House in Blackheath Park designed by Gwynne, one of two designs he executed for Leslie Bilsby, a pioneer builder of modernist housing schemes.

In the late 1960s, Gwynne's quantity surveyor, Ken Monk, asked him to design a summer house in West Sussex on a strip of land overlooking the Channel. This house was Vista Point, completed in 1970, and designed to take full advantage of the site.

External picture of Vista Point on the coast in West Sussex. Designed by Gwynne for his quantity surveyor Ken Monk in 1969.

Gwynne designed Vista Point to entirely overlook the garden. The house has few side windows. Bingham writes: “The house is planned with an hourglass shape, narrowing to a 'waistline' for the staircase core. The roof echoes the undulating walls, sliding from the front to the rear like a giant wave. Gwynne chose building materials, many of them man-made, to withstand the sea-front climate.”[5]

He did not complete any major buildings after the end of the 1970s, working more as an advisor on restorations and extensions.[6]

Grovewood was a house designed by Gwynne situated on the Wentworth Estate, Virginia Water, Surrey. It was designed for a chemical engineer and his family and had a floor plan of 1900 square feet,[7] in a tri-form configuration consisting of a central area with three uniform arms. It incorporated several features seen in The Homewood including movable room dividers, floor to ceiling glazing and strategically placed narrow windows. It was sold in 1982 and then again in 1994, when it was subsequently demolished and redeveloped.

Grovewood, a tri-form design by Gwynne

The property was featured in House and Garden magazine, March 1968.

His entry in the restaurant competition at the Festival of Britain led to a commission for the Crescent Restaurant at Battersea Park. It was a real tent, with Regency-style bows to support the structure, painted in rainbow colours.

The Dell Restaurant

Through this he met Charles Forte, for whom he went on in 1964 to design the Serpentine Restaurant in Hyde Park, a series of mushroom structures inspired by umbrellas – which he thought appropriate in a park. It was demolished in 1990, but his smaller Dell Restaurant, built 1965, at the other end of the park survives, and the terrazzo terrace and built-in seating overlooking the Serpentine show his signature touches.

The Serpentine Restaurant led to a commission for a restaurant addition to the Theatre Royal at York, where the mushroom structure was repeated around a sweeping, freestanding staircase.

Burtonwood services building

He designed two motorway service stations for Motorchef. Burtonwood on the M62 was built in 1974, with a pair of dramatic roof forms swooping up like a swirl of whipped cream.